Our Lovely Bald Cypress
We are all in process, saint and sinner alike and in-fact everything is in process. That is a reality we cannot change, but we can choose or manage our perspectives.
There is the idea of destination or the plural form of that, destinations and that is a fact of life but destination is just a milestone within the bigger thing going on of process. When we arrive there is more to go, virtually almost always!
The other day Leisha overheard our neighbor comment on our dead Bald Cypress, basically it just needed to go since it was showing no life. We had two of these in our front yard in Fort Worth and we have this one in this house because both Leisha and I just loved those two. So near 22 years and yes every year they turn orange, shed all of their leaves and yes cover large portions of our yard in orange. We happen to like it, Leisha loves it, both of us giggle with glee at the knees that show up in our yard. We see the knees as unique and unusual attributes of this kind of tree. We tend to like things and people that are different. We see it as a process or in process, it’s just another phase of its life. Our neighbors daughter only saw death. I guess she thought it was an evergreen.
We are a little west of its natural range but only by a couple of hundred miles or so and they seem to thrive under our care. These things can get HUGE, 140 feet !!! They can live a long time, some have been found to be near 500 years old and forest of them in the US 1400 hundred years old. I don’t expect ours to get that big our live that long but it will get as big as we want and outlive us. Also, these big boys are a great way to add fall color in North Texas. Just look at those vibrant orange colors all over the place !!!
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Philipians 4:8
We are like that with ourselves and others in de-valuing ‘us’. We see death or lack of worth where there might be life and value. At worse we can see an end of things where its just another season, maybe one of many more to come. But the Ancient One doesn’t see things this way and most especially us. He sees process and value and he sees what comes after this season no matter how difficult it may be. After all he has been watching us, planning on things for us, waiting on us to get over ourselves for a long long time. I don’t think he really likes having to let us have ‘troubles’ to help us get to where we need to be but what can a Father do?
Father thank you for this long difficult season that helped me so much in understanding more about this. Thank you for loving me through my own often self imposed difficulties. Most especially where I made things worse because I demanded things to be over, had an attitude because I knew things shouldn’t have taken so long. I doubted you, your ways, your infinite wisdom. Thank you for gingerly getting me into this new way of seeing myself and others. I see Love in you having been there and more and more I trust you will always be. Thank you for ‘The Process’